


Exchanging places

by Keenir



Series: Learning curve folder [8]
Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Thor Movies, Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-19
Updated: 2013-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-20 17:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/890073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>All the fight has gone out of him,</i> Thor knew, looking at Loki.</p><p>This is why: Loki began to fall, until Sif took his place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exchanging places

_All the fight has gone out of him,_ Thor knew, looking at Loki.

Thor shoved aside the guards who by now had come down to the shattered end of the Bifrost, and he placed Loki on a horse. He led the his brother and the horse back to the confines of Asgard.

There was a story in it, Thor knew, but not one he cared to have in song; not the ending, certainly. And it had ended - _we will all miss her, brother, most terribly we shall_ \- on the Bifrost Bridge. Or rather, just below it and beside it...

  


* * *

The Bifrost itself had just been shattered, and now Loki clung to one weapon'send for all he was worth, slowly sliding down that handle, paying no attention to Thor's shouts at him, presumably to give Thor a hand and come up - the content of those words were not his concern at the moment.

And then, shaking free of her stillness, Sif proceeded to break a dozen of the laws of combat resolution by running out to them and dropping down to lay on the Bridge, her own hand extended out to Loki.

And then, Loki's hand could no longer hold on.

Sif bolted to her feet, standing on the edge.

Loki began to fall.

Sif leaped, diving.

With a move that was as much kick as throw, she flung him back up to the surface of the Bifrost.

No sooner had he landed, than he scrambled back to the edge.

Loki tried magicking her up towards them - but found he could not.

The Bifrost tolerated few magics on it even when it was healthy. Now the list of magics was so short as to be useless to him.

Sif watched Loki until he was too far to see, and then she kept looking in that direction.

Loki watched Sif until she was too far to see, and then, still looking, still watching, his body gave up while his mind screamed into empty space.

Thor was in no rush to get back up, his mind still reeling at what he had just witnessed so close to him. But even when Thor came to be standing, Loki had no moved from where he had last seen Sif. Even when Thor reached for him, Loki did not move.

Loki gave only the most pathetic, token scuffling when Thor lifted him away from the edge. 

"We will find her, brother," Thor said. _Because what else can we do?_ Despite himself, it worried Thor that Loki did not respond to that with acid words or a withering look or a lone punch.

He did nothing but hang from his brother's hands like a toy whose connective strings had at the last, snapped.

  


* * *

There was a feast in Asgard, as there often are.

This one was to celebrate the return home of Thor, and the restored health of Odin.

The Warriors Three stood near the edge of the celebration, watching Thor walk the battlements in an endless loop.

"Two of his best friends, and a grand new love, all lost in the space of a day," Fandral said.

"I doubt any form of wine, song, or battle would serve able to take his mind off it," Volstagg said.

"Not even briefly," Frigga said, standing behind them and looking out at her son.

**Author's Note:**

> How would The Avengers differ, had it been Sif and not Loki leading the Chitari army?  
> (less illusion, more tactics?)


End file.
